| Afro Jams of the Week: August 2, 2021 | August 6, 2021 |
Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa returns with the best Afro Jams of the Week from Rinyu, Me Abre dos Agre, Gaz Fabilouss and more.
| Fantastic Man: William Onyeabor Stays Alive | May 19, 2014 |
Luaka Bop’s “Who Is Jordan Pedersen?” compilation is not forthcoming. It’s tempting, understandable even, to compare “world” musicians to artists from the English-speaking world. It plays into a trait us music writers are notorious for – name-dropping – and it helps us grapple with unfamiliar sounds. “This thing I don’t understand sounds like this thing I do […]
| Previously Unreleased Audio of Fela Kuti Live at Amsterdam (1981) & Live at Lagos Sunsplash (1988) | October 9, 2013 |
Paul McCartney understood that only one man was legitimately bigger and better than Jesus: Fela Anikulapo Kuti. He who carries death in his pouch. John Lennon may have gotten assassinated by the coward Mark David Chapman, but Fela Kuti had to watch his mother get defenestrated by army zombies in the middle of his private […]
| The Accurate Coordinates of Bells Atlas | June 28, 2013 |
Max Bell something something something. I wrote about Oakland’s Bells Atlas and their self-titled EP back in April. The EP’s been in constant rotation for me ever since. That was until I listened to their also self-titled LP, released June 18 via the group’s Bandcamp. At eleven tracks, it might be the best, and most […]
| Atlas Loved: The Afro-Pop Soul of Oakland’s Bells Atlas | April 5, 2013 |
Max Bell’s heart pumps coffee. The EP is often the best distillation of an artist’s/group’s early material. There’s no room for the extraneous or sub-par. If not excised, there’s no place for the lame to hide. For groups that go with the LP the first time out, the skip button is usually hit, and you […]
